A prospective school board trustee is the first to submit nomination papers for Sarnia’s election this fall.
Sylvie C. Barbeau-Chmielewsky, vying for a spot on the French separate school board – Conseil scolaire catholique Providence – was the only nominee to throw in her proverbial hat May 2, the first day nominations could be filed for the Oct. 24 election.
She remained the only candidate as of Tuesday afternoon.
Others have until Aug. 19 at 2 pm to declare if they want to run, Sarnia clerk Amy Burkhart said.
Polling stations are being determined for in-person voting in Sarnia’s first hybrid paper-and-internet electionshe said, noting hopes are to have eight to 10.
“Unlike previous elections where you were assigned a voting location, we plan to have a vote-anywhere model,” she said, meaning any elector can use any of the voting locations to cast a ballot.
City officials are working to spread them out as equally as possible, she said.
“We want to make them accessible to everyone,” she said. “They’re all going to be on bus routes.”
The exact number of locations will depend on staffing. The details, when determined, will be posted at sarnia.ca, where there’s a running unofficial candidates list, key dates, and other election resources, Burkhart said.
Internet voting will be held from Oct. 15 to Oct. 24, she said.
Sarnia awarded the $203,000 election services contract, which includes producing and distributing voter information cards, to Scytl Canada last November.
The city’s entire election cost has been estimated at about $600,000, based on running five polling locations.
Sarnia used internet and telephone voting in 2018, but did away with telephone voting for 2022’s election on the advice of a citizen election committee.
Sarnia’s turnover in 2018 was 48.9 per cent.
Petrolia, Point Edward, Plympton-Wyoming, Lambton Shores, Warwick Township and Enniskillen Township are also using internet voting and Scytl in their municipal elections, officials have said.
About 45 people took part in Town of Petrolia-moderated virtual training Monday, offered via the municipalities, on councilor roles and responsibilities. The training was conducted by Fred Dean, a retired city solicitor and municipal training consultant.
“Every municipality does it a little bit differently, but we teamed up with all the municipal clerks in the County of Lambton and Fred hired to conduct the sessions,” Burkhart said about the training.
Often it’s conducted by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, but ministry officials were unavailable, she said.
People can check if they’re on the voter list by voter visitinglookup.ca, she said. Voter information is supplied through the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.